Tag: election

DONALD TRUMP WINS US PRESIDENCY

Written by Rasheffa Rashid

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Image credit: scmp.com Image source

The win of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States on November 9, 2016, shocked the world. While many might have predicted the win, tough some kept their fingers crossed hoping on Hillary Clinton’s winning the 2016 Presidency US Election. Upon the announcement on his winning, Trump surpassed the threshold of 270 out of the total 538 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. People around the world reacted as the world was coming down on them. Some even believed that The Simpsons from 2000 projection on Trump being the US president and US facing a major financial crunch, which turned out to be true.

Bernama on Nov 9, quoting a report from China’s Xinhua news agency reported, that the victory has made Trump the first president that never held elected office since 1953, pulling a major upset after a controversial and scandalous campaign cycle. What made people feared his win was his crazy campaign resolutions calling to impose ban on Muslim travellers in to the United States. Diamond (2015) a CNN journalist quoting a campaign press release his article mentioned:

“Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on”

Trump proposed for the move reacting to a deadly mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, suspected ISIS sympathizers (Diamond, 2015).Trump’s proposal resulted in many of his opponents to engage in a debate over whether a religious test should be conducted for one to enter America. However, his supporters, showed their approval towards proposal (Diamond, 2015) on the ban which was widely debated on netizens on social media.

During the 2016 election on November 8, the stock markets around the world started to show uncertainty and investors projected US Dollar to plunge upon Trump’s win. Referring to a Bernama news report, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was down in a knee-jerk reaction in line with global bourses to the shocking results of Donald Trump winning the US presidential election. When the announcement on the current status of the market made, Trump had won 276 electoral votes, and only needed six electoral votes to become the next US President, leaving Clinton far behind with only 218 electoral votes. With these results in hand, it was pretty obvious that Trump will hold the next US President post.

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A BBC report titled “US Election 2016: Asia markets jolted by Trump win” said Asian stocks had fallen sharply as Trump beat Hillary in their race into the White House.

   “All regional markets closed lower, with money flowing into safe haven stocks, gold and currencies including the yen. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped by 5.4% while European and US markets are expected to slide when trading resumes on Wednesday”

According to the report, the market showed negativity as traders had expected Hillary Clinton to win. The BBC report also said, analyst believed the plunge in Asian Market was because Trump’s win was seen as negative for Asian economies due to his previous protectionist rhetoric. The Republican candidate had talked about imposing tariffs on China imports and punishing companies that send their work overseas.

However, US markets took a U-turn, when it closed higher the following day after Donald Trump’s election win, defied expectations of a slump as investors predicted. The dollar dived after the US election result was called, but has continued to recover against the euro during the day.

On to the Ringgit, The Edge Markets on Nov 10 reported, the ringgit to depreciate to its weakest point at 4.2537 against the US Dollar a day after Donald Trump’s election win.  Analysts said Trump’s victory against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton had created uncertainty on US policies on world political and economic backdrops.

It was also reported that, the ringgit lost two per cent week-on-week against a strong US dollar on November 11. Analyst from Affic Hwang Asset Management said, this phenomenon of currency fall, was not only experienced in Malaysia, but the risk-off sentiment shockwave was sent globally. Many emerging market currencies were affected upon a republican winning the presidency.  This was mainly due to Trump’s intention to impose stricter trade deals.

 

Reference

Chong, J. H (2016). Ringgit weakens on Trump win, Malaysia rate cut talk.
TheEdgeMarket.com, 10 Nov 2016, retrieved on 24 Nov 2016, from
http://www.theedgemarkets.com/my/article/ringgit-weakens-trump-win-malaysia- rate-cut-talk

Donald Trump Wins US Presidential Election. (2016). Bernama.com, 9 Nov,
retrieved on 23 Nov 2016 from
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v8/wn/newsworld.php?id=1300423

Diamond, J (2015). Donald Trump: Ban all Muslim travel to U.S. CCN News, 8 Dec
2015. Retrieved on 23 Nov 2016 from
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/07/politics/donald-trump-muslim-ban-immigration/

Thomas, L (2016). Why Stock Markets, Initially Shaken, Went Up After Trump’s
Victory. The New York Times, 8 Nov 2016. Retrieved on 23 Nov 2016 from

Trump Win Sends Risk-Off Sentiment Shockwave Globally (2016). Bernama.com,
11 Nov. Retrieved on 25 Nov 2016 from
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v8/bu/newsbusiness.php?id=1301318

Trump wins US election: How world leaders have reacted (2016). BBC News, 9 Nov.
Retrieved on 25 Nov 2016 from http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37919394
US Election 2016: Asia markets jolted by Trump win (2016). BBC News, 9 Nov, retrieved on
23 Nov 2016 from http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37917842

US stocks climb after Trump win (2016). BBC New, 10 Nov, retrieved on 23 Nov 2016 from
http://www.bbc.com/news/live/business-37875340

BERSIH RALLY

Written by Mazida Desa

BERSIH RALLY

The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections or known as Gabungan Pilihanraya Bersih dan Adil or Bersih in Malay is a non-government organisations (NGOs) coalition which seeks to reform the current electoral system in Malaysia to ensure free, clean and fair elections. It was officially formed on 23rd November 2006 as a joint communiqué that comprised leaders from political parties, civil society groups and NGOs. Bersih has accused the Election Commission under Prime Minister’s Department for manipulating the electoral process for giving an unfair advantage to the ruling National Front coalition. Bersih claimed that the electoral roll was spoiled by irregularities such as gerrymandering, phantom voters, mal apportionment and fraud postal votes. On 10th November 2007, Bersih organised the first rally with 10,000 to 40,000 turnouts and held a public demonstration at Merdeka Square, Kuala Lumpur. Supporters of Bersih were urged to wear yellow T-shirts as a symbol of protest.

Background of the Media

Utusan Malaysia or literally translated from Malay to English as “The Malaysian Courier” is a Malay-language newspaper published in Malaysia. Distinctive for its blue masthead as its logo and trademark, Utusan Malaysia was first published in Jawi in 1939. Utusan Malaysia became an influential medium for the people to voice out their opinions towards the ruling of British Government in Malaya.

BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that is responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and also current affairs. The department is the world’s largest broadcast news organization and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online news coverage.

Propaganda

Utusan Online released a statement that Bersih movement is associated with a Christian group based outside of the country. According to the official statement, it is intended to reduce the post of Prime Minister due to injustice in governing the country. According to BBC News, the goal is to push Bersih electoral reform in Malaysia and the government claimed that the action was unfair. In addition, BBC News earned the story by saying there are jets of water cannons from the Net group. Utusan Online discussed the financial funds collected by Bersih that has reached millions of ringgit.

 

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It is not logic if the analysts assumed that the money would be channelled and sponsored from the Christians. There is a revelation of the missing money and that is the cause that triggers chaos and riots. The source also pointed out that the biggest contributor to Bersih movement was affiliated with the Christian. In the meantime, the source also explained that the Net also received financial assistance from NGOs based in United States, Britain and several Asian countries whereas according to BBC News, there was an incident pursuing and using weapons among them.

In addition, the newspaper accused Bersih movement made a scapegoat by the Election Commission to legalise the illegal demonstration and had a net movement of the political mastermind. According to Awani, Bersih 4.0 or a classified banned rally in Malaysia also took place in several other cities around the world. According to Foreign Ministry, the respected bodies will collect information from Malaysians who are involved with illegal assembly Bersih 4.0 abroad. Legal actions can be taken against them later. The Ministry’s Deputy Minister, Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican said the monitoring was conducted by Wisma Putra and their identities will be submitted to the national authorities so that actions will be taken according to the law of the country

Chronology of the Bersih Rally

Starting on 10 November 2007 at 5.30pm, Bersih 2.0 committee failed to submit a memorandum to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong at Istana Negara. However, he described that the association achieve its goals and they also slammed the rest of the participants, including those from other groups. It ends at 7:30 am the next day, there were numbers of trucks of the Federal Reserve Unit (FRU), including those equipped with water cannons along Jalan Maharajalela and towards Masjid Negara and Masjid Jamek.

Evidence

The evidence of the Bersih is when the Prime Minister felt threatened by this movement and start to take action to this group. The purpose of this motion is to seek justice on behalf of the people and attempt to overthrow Prime Minister. Bersih rally has been initiated since 2007.